Uranus, Neptunus, Pluto, Quaoar, Sedna

Zo is het maar net. Ik was Quaoar al vergeten! Zaak is dat Sedna even groot of groter zou kunnen zijn dan Pluto, en aangezien ze nu 70 jaar na dato Pluto z’n planetenstatus niet meer willen afpakken, zullen ze wel verplicht zijn om er een tiende planeet bij te maken.

Terwijl Quaoar nog klein genoeg was om gewoon “nog zo’n kuipergordelobject” te kunnen zijn. Trouwens, de mannen die het ontdekt hebben, vinden zelf dat het geen planeet is:

Is Quaoar a Planet?
We don’t think so. It’s about half the size of Pluto and further away, but there are other big objects out there, too. Varuna (900 km in diameter) and 2002 AW197 (also 900 km in diameter) are two of the biggest Kuiper Belt Objects, and they are not considered “planets” either. There are about 600 known Kuiper Belt Objects, most of which are only about 100 km in diameter, and all of which were discovered since 1992 by different scientists who have been looking for them. It’s similar to the asteroid belt, but beyond Neptune and contains maybe 100 times more material. You can read more about the Kuiper Belt at the Kuiper Belt Homepage. Note that the Kuiper Belt is also called the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt and the trans-Neptunian Belt. We think we should be able to find 5 – 10 more of these really big Kuiper Belt Objects over the next couple of years, including perhaps a couple “super-Plutos”.